Sunday, 29 April 2012

We know love by this, that he laid down his life for
us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God’s love
abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister* in need and yet refuses
help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth
and action. And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will
reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is
greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our hearts do not
condemn us, we have boldness before God; and we receive from him whatever we
ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.

And this is his commandment, that we should
believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he
has commanded us. All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in
them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given
us.

(Intro: all you need is love – The Beatles)

Looking at the text for today, I found myself
inwardly groaning – Oh no – not love again.

What else is there to say on love?

Then I found these words of St Jerome, an
early church historian:

"When the
venerable John could no longer walk to the meetings of the Church but was borne
thither by his disciples, he always uttered the same address to the Church; he
reminded them of that one commandment which he had received from Christ
Himself, as comprising all the rest, and forming the distinction of the new
covenant, "My little children, love one another." When the brethren
present, wearied of hearing the same thing so often, asked why he always
repeated the same thing, he replied, "Because it is the commandment of the
Lord, and if this one thing be attained, it is enough" [JEROME]."

IT is the
commandment of the Lord – to love one another.

Elizabeth Barret Browning’s poem says:

How do I love thee? Let me
count the ways.

I love thee to the depth
and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when
feeling out of sight

For the ends of Being and
ideal Grace.

I love thee to the level of
everyday's

Most quiet need, by sun and
candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men
strive for Right;

I love thee purely, as they
turn from Praise.

I love thee with a passion
put to use

In my old griefs, and with
my childhood's faith.

I love thee with a love I
seemed to lose

With my lost saints, --- I
love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my
life! --- and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee
better after death.

Timeless words that speak of love.

Those other words that we often use to speak of
love, the words of St Paul from 1 Corinthians:

Love is patient and
kind, love envies no one, is not boastful, conceited or rude etc.

Those words are almost too clinical to describe
something that is much more instinctive than we can imagine.

Love is not for speaking – it is for living.

Love, is not something that can be commanded, not
something that comes on tap.

Love springs up from a spirit that can do no other.

Love bubbles and froths.

Love twists and turns.

Love wells up even out of hurt, love survives even
beyond relationship.

We cannot properly speak of love.

But we can live love.

John exhorts us:

Love
one another just as he has commanded us.

In
this past-Easter season in the church, the message of Jesus giving his life for
us is held up as a prime example of love.

What
do we know about Jesus love?

From
the gospels we don’t glean much about the sentiment of Jesus’ love.

We
don’t hear much about Jesus’ feelings of love.

But
we do get a clear sense of action.

Jesus’
love led him to die on a cross.

Love,
not in the abstract, but love as a reality – a reality that we too are called
to live into.

In
those early days of the church, those words about laying down our lives for one
another, may have referred to martyrdom – many of the early Christians were
being persecuted for their faith.

That
doesn’t make these words irrelevant to us today –

John
goes on to say:

Let
us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.

Those words are every bit as challenging to us
today as they were when they were written.

Those words demand that we move beyond the
sentiment of love to actually doing something about it.

Let
us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action

Perhaps not too much of a challenge in some
areas of our lives – with our loved ones, our families, even, perhaps our
church family – we can imagine ourselves loving in truth and in action, can
even go beyond our imagination into practice.

We can also act out that love for those whom
we will probably never meet – sending money to Romania or tossing in our
Pennies for Peru as we do.

All of those are love in action.

There’s no doubt about that.

But what about love in action for those not in
our immediate circle or not far enough away to pose no threat to us?

What about those we encounter in our everyday,
- friends, colleagues, acquaintances, neighbours?

Those we have almost become immune to because
they are simply part of our everyday life?

To love these people as Jesus loved requires
effort. Requires that we stop and think about our interactions.

That we be ACTIVE in our loving.

That we go out of our way to show love, even
when it is not requested or expected.

Now THAT IS a challenge!

And, if we think its difficult to do with
those we kind of like, just imagine how much more difficult it is with those we
disagree with, those whose values are not our values, those who are just not
like us.

I love that Old Scots toast:

Here’s tae us

Wha’s like us

Gey few and they’re a’ deid!

Our daily lives are filled with encounters
with folk who are not like us!

Thursday, 12 April 2012

Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you should be in agreement and that there should be no divisions among you, but that you should be united in the same mind and the same purpose. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters.What I mean is that each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul’, or ‘I belong to Apollos’, or ‘I belong to Cephas’, or ‘I belong to Christ.’ Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius,so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power.
Christ the Power and Wisdom of God
For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Driving through rural Scotland, bridges often appear seemingly out of nowhere and sometimes with very little obvious purpose. Perhaps to link farmland that has become separated through urbanisation. Or to allow the passage of livestock across a busy road that has materialised in a formerly rural landscape. It often seems like a lot of effort and expense has been incurred for correspondingly little benefit. Except history would decree a different story and place in context the need for a gap to be bridged and a new pathway to be created. And the many, creative, picturesque styles of bridges do make the scenery even more beautiful and varied.

Divisions in the church are nothing new - as old as time itself. We become quite tolerant and even, at times, indulgent of these divisions. But St Paul places in context the need for bridges to be built - or dispensed with The divisions and our pandering to them, distract us from the mission to which we are called - preaching the gospel.

This makes me uncomfortable. I would rather chip away at finding similarities in our differences, common ground over which we can agree than work at a real solution that would bring about unity. I am more content with living with the differences than with dismantling a system that excludes. I cling on to the arguments, rationalising that they lend some spice to life, even, on occasion, beauty. And all the while, the gospel remains unpreached, far less lived out.

Tuesday, 10 April 2012

But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’ But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ When he had said this, he died.

When my adult child, in a rare moment of sharing (he is still a teenager) describes to me some of the exploits that are a part of his performing in a punk band, involving mosh pits and crowd surfing, I sometimes have to put my hands over my ears and sing loudly in order to block out the worrying pictures that he describes so vividly. While I appreciate his confidences, sometimes there are things I would rather not know! A clear case of too much information.
Stephen, one of seven men recruited to "wait on tables" so that the disciples would not be deflected from preaching the word, was guilty of sharing too much information.
Finding his preaching voice, he speaks too clearly to the religious institutions of the day, indicting their practice, inflaming their anger, to the point where they want him dead.
In order to stone Stephen, these good, religious people had to cover their ears to his preaching. They had to immunise themselves from his sharing of the vision he was receiving in the grip of the Holy Spirit. It would not have satisfied their appetite to quell his prophetic preaching if they took on board the justification he experienced in martyrdom. They needed to taste blood.
As people of faith today, living in the light of the Resurrection, we too can find ourselves covering our ears - blocking out those things we simply don't want to hear about, those things that indict our way of life. We, too, by closing our ears to the things we do not want to hear can find ourselves surrounded by the ugliness of rocks poised to attack, especially when those things we want to blot out call into question our dearly held traditions of faith.
Surely, as resurrection people, our mission is to seek new ways to listen and to respond and to discern the prompting of the Spirit of the risen Christ in all of life.